Your words conveyed a different impression.

...and I disagree with your statement...

If you use a real hash (lexical, please) instead of symbolic references, you *are* immune to the perils of *symbolic references*. The problem of mistyping individual hash keys is a separate problem that afflicts both approaches. The big peril of symbolic references is that you have to take additional care to avoid stomping on the package variable names you create ad hoc.

Your objection conflates these to facets.